BILLERICA -- The town manager and Board of Selectmen won't sit silently when it comes to the sewers.

Town Manager John Curran requested last week that the state Department of Environmental Protection deny the Billerica House of Correction's proposed sewer-connection permit, stating in a detailed five-page letter that the jail-expansion project was not included in the town's long-term sewer planning and "the additional flow simply cannot be accommodated."

Selectmen also requested a public hearing, so the town and other interested parties get the chance to comment publicly on the proposed permit.

"They're impacting every resident who doesn't have sewer, pushing them further and further back on the sewer timeline," said Selectmen Chairman Dave Gagliardi. "Unfortunately, because negotiations are in executive session, people think we're hiding things, but that's not the case at all. It's not like we're sitting on our hands. We're working on this."

The Massachusetts Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance, on behalf of the Middlesex Sheriff's Office, applied in June for the sewer-connection permit that would allow 99,200 gallons per day from the $37 million expansion facility. The capacity would be 200 gallons per day for each bed in the 496-bed facility.

Curran said the proposed permit would rise to 222,200 gallons per day, which exceeds the current 200,000 gallons per day agreement with the state.

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He wrote to MassDEP that Billerica will only be in a position to support the permit if it's accompanied by a "one-for-one" increase to the town's permit limit.

About 25 percent to 30 percent of Billerica residents remain off the town's sewer, Curran said.

"We want to expand our sewer program to bring more residents on, but this proposed permit is causing a problem," Curran said. "We'd like to get this issue wrapped up sooner rather than later because it's taxing."

Curran is also requesting mitigation efforts because of the sewer's impact; this includes changing the House of Correction's water and sewer rates to an out-of-town rate plus a 20 percent markup to be used for future capital projects because the facility "does not contribute to the town's general fund in any way," he wrote.

MassDEP spokesman Joe Ferson said that officials are reviewing the comments and request for a public hearing; he said MassDEP would make a decision "sometime in the next several weeks."

If there is a public hearing, officials from the Executive Office of Administration and Finance will be present and answer questions, according to spokesperson Alex Zaroulis.

Rachael Neff, DCAMM's spokesperson, has said DCAMM is confident that the facility's water use will remain under the permitted maximum flow of 200,000 gallons per day after the current planned expansion.

DCAMM placed meters at the existing facility for three months in 2011, where the flow was measured daily. The maximum flow during that time period was 123,000 gallons, which was "well below the 200,000 gallons per day maximum in the existing permit," Neff said.

DCAMM and the Middlesex Sheriff's Office are planning to install water-conservation measures as part of an energy upgrade to the facility, which will likely reduce the current maximum use even further, she said.

The additional 496 beds at the $37 million expansion facility will be temporary, Middlesex Sheriff Peter Koutoujian said. He stressed that the presence of pretrial detainees in Billerica will be temporary until officials find a suitable 5-acre site to build the Southern Middlesex Justice Center.

The $37 million expansion facility will still be utilized once the detainees move out of Billerica, Koutoujian said. Some of the buildings are old and falling apart, so the existing inmate population will end up in the expansion, he said.

But Selectman George Simolaris is not convinced that the expansion plan will be temporary. Simolaris has painted several large "Stop Prison Expansion" signs around town in response to the $37 million expansion plan. His major concern has been about the sewer impact on residents, which he wrote on some of the signs.

However, Billerica's Building Department told him to remove them last week because the oversized signs violated the town's sign bylaw, and Simolaris said he would remove the signs.

"For the people who don't like these signs, when they're not getting any water out of their tap, they'll have bigger things to worry about," Simolaris said.

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